"Release"

Deuteronomy 15:1-11; Matthew 19:16-22

One of the things I loved about having the chance to perform in an opera or musical was letting go of whatever else was happening in my life. Whatever emotions, issues, or struggles I was experiencing in real life were let go of once on the stage. I always felt better once a performance was over. It was cathartic, a tangible release of all that was happening in my life.

The word, release is a verb meaning "To relieve from something that confines, burdens, or oppresses."

These two texts also invite us to practice release. God invites us to let go of greed, anxiety, or anything that keeps us from fully following in faith. What possessions prevent us from fully living God's story for our lives? These passages encourage us not to trust in our possessions but ultimately in God.

In Matthew, we see a man who had it all: he was young, rich, and a ruler. He had faith in God and practiced that faith in his life. Yet he was grieved when challenged to let go of the one thing that prevented him from fully living into God's story for his life—he could not release his wealth or status. His trust in his possessions confined him. His love of power and place kept him from having complete faith and a relationship with God.

In Deuteronomy, we find a radical social mandate. The people of God were also called to release- to cancel debts, releasing power over others.

So, let's look at these two passages to see what they tell us about releasing, beginning with the Deuteronomy passage.

The year of Jubilee is the seventh year on the Hebrew calendar. In the seventh year, God called the people to release others from indebtedness and all types of bondage. All prisoners and captives were set free, all enslaved people were released, all debts were forgiven, and all property was returned to its original owners. Why was the property returned? This had the practical effect of ensuring that land was not concentrated in a small number of hands and spiritually served as a reminder that nothing on earth truly belongs to human beings. This is made explicit in Leviticus, when God states, "The land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me." (Leviticus 25:23-28) It is all on loan from God. In addition, labor was to cease for a year, and laborers were released from work contracts.

What a shift for the Israelites! Last week, they had manna for breakfast, quail at night, and little else. Then, once they settled in the Promised Land, they began accumulating wealth and possessions. Now, they owned land, had power, had wealth, and had shaped a society with all the complications and messiness that brings.   They went from many generations of slavery, few possessions, and a generation of absolute and total dependence on God in the wilderness to life in abundance and comfort. To help them keep from being possessed by these comforts and understand the need to release, God says all debts will be erased every seventh year.

Contrast that with our current culture! We embrace indebtedness. Americans now owe a record $1.14 trillion on their credit cards, according to a new report on household debt from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Credit card balances rose by $27 billion in the second quarter of 2024, a 5.8% jump from a year ago. Credit card delinquency rates were also higher — especially among younger adults aged 18 to 29 and 30 to 39.  

We embrace debt and, in fact, fight against erasing it. Our culture has risen in opposition to canceling debts. Politicians and even the Supreme Court stopped the cancellation of student debt through political might. We are a society steeped in predatory lending and generational poverty. Lives are monetized by their productivity. The worth of a human being is determined by activity and busyness.

Land ownership around the world is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands. According to welthungerhilfe.org, the wealthiest 10% of the world population currently controls more than 60% of land by value. Our global culture does not see land as on loan from God. It is a commodity to be snatched up to grow one's wealth and power.

 All of that indebtedness is nothing short of sinful. Many decades ago, one of the people in the congregation I served had no credit cards because of this passage. At the time, I thought her position was somewhat extreme. Yet, the older I get and see the impact worldwide of living in debt, the more I consider her an example of God's intent.

After studying this passage, theologian Liz Theoharis writes, "There's no way to be right with God if your neighbor is being oppressed. You cannot do what God requires of you if debts exist in your society. Sin, in great part, is an economic term. "

How is debt sinful? Why did God tell the Israelites to keep away from it? God knows us and knows how sin can creep in and entice us to have power over others through money. When someone owes us, we can use it as leverage to guard and expand our worth, ignoring the needs of others. In following God, by getting rid of indebtedness every seven years, you would prevent the financial consolidation of power and steer from the sin of disempowering and dehumanizing others. Wiping the slate clean every seventh year would help the people see one another in the image of God rather than as a commodity.

Theologian Luke Johnson writes, "Our every instinct as humans is toward idolatry, to close and protect our own projects and possessions. But God calls us to a larger space, God's own creation, revealed to us in the others we encounter every day. When we obey the call to faith, with an openness to God as disclosed through God's creation and release our projects and possessions, we experience freedom."

The rich young ruler lacked freedom but was unaware of that fact. His initial question to Jesus was about knowing how to receive eternal life. He did all sorts of faithful things in his life. He valued life, was steadfast in his relationships, was honest, didn't lie about others, honored and loved his parents, and practiced one of the most challenging commands of God- to love your neighbor as you love yourself. In Mark's version of this story (Mark 12), Jesus, seeing his faith, looks at him and loves him. What a guy! What a catch! Rich, young, powerful, ethical. If he were on one of those television shows like The Bachelor, he'd be the favorite to be chosen at the show's end. 

However, Jesus sees that there is one thing left he needs to do to live a faithful life and inherit eternal life. He needs to release his faith and trust in possessions to save him. Release. Let go. Jesus' response to this man suggests having so much treasure was incompatible with following him as a disciple. Why? He had faith in his possessions to save him, not God.

The young man's reaction is rare and unprecedented. This is a call story where Jesus calls someone to follow him. It is the ONLY story in the gospels where the one called walks away instead of following Jesus' call. Instead of following the call, he went into shock. He went away grieving. He believed, as many others did then, that God favored wealthy people. Consider that many of the characters in the Hebrew scriptures who were heroes of the faith were wealthy: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Boaz, Job, David, and, of course, his son, Solomon. The belief was that their faith in God was tied to God's blessing upon them and their wealth. Now, Jesus had said that the wealth he thought he had received from God was the one thing getting in the way of genuinely following God! His enslavement of others, his many possessions, his status- all of these things were important to him. He could not release them.

These two passages encourage us to release- to release our possessions so that what we possess does not possess us.- to release those indebted to us so that the sin of indebtedness no longer rules our culture.- to remember and give thanks for all we have and all we are and remember that God is the source of it all.

That brings us back to our money story. I shared mine with you last Sunday. What does your money story say about possessions? How does it influence your choices about what you own? What might you need to release due to your own money story? I need to release worry, let go of scarcity, and learn to trust God more and more to provide.

So, what do you need to release? What are you holding onto in a clenched fist that confines, burdens, or oppresses you?

I invite you to consider that, close your eyes, imagine whatever those things are in your mind, then place them in your palm and close your fingers around them tightly. Clench that fist and hold on as I read this poem, "Release."

Poet and Pastor Rev. Sarah Are "Release"

"I want to practice release, removing the stones that weigh down my wings-

stones of fear, shame, and grief,

stones that build walls between You and me.

I want to do all these things-

be untamed and wild, open and free, the first to give and the last to hold tight,

because gratitude and clenched fists never felt right.

And I am just starting to see that this life is a river, a holy stream.

And if life is a river, then God is the sky, touching everything at once

and inviting us to try letting go of the raft, to float on our backs,

so that we and God can be eye to eye- a life of baptism and nothing but sky.

But first, you have to release."

Let go. Release and grab hold of Christ's hand- what truly matters. Alleluia. Amen

Closing Prayer
Lord of abundant riches, give us the courage to let go, knowing that what you offer is more valuable than all the wealth in the world. Amen.